Sunny-Side-Up Apricot Pastry

In Minnesota for the past week it has been a little too gray for my taste. The one consolation to all the cold and snow we get around here, are the endless clear blue skies. They are rather remarkable and make the winters tolerable. When they refuse to show themselves through the clouds I go cold. This means I need a little something to brighten up my day. Something sweet! Something easy and quick. Sunny-Side-Up Apricot Pastry (p. 225) will do the trick. A combination of buttery brioche, luscious vanilla pastry cream and tangy sweet apricots.

If you have a batch of Brioche dough at the ready then these treats go together in a short time. Perhaps more than 5 minutes but some indulgences are worth the few extra minutes.

One other thing drives me crazy about January, the lack of fresh fruit. Not that Chile isn’t willing to produce and ship anything your heart desires, but it just isn’t the same as fresh fruit from the farmers market or the pick-it-yourself farm. But this is a craving and one that I can’t wait until summer to satisfy. So I admit I went to Lund’s and bought a can of Apricots and went on my merry way toward happiness.

…and don’t forget to use a real vanilla bean in the pastry cream. If you’ve never used one before click here and I’ll show you how!

The Pastries:

1 1/2 pounds (cantaloupe-size portion) Brioche dough (p.189)dough that you have mixed up and refrigerated.

8 ripe apricots, halved (fresh in season or canned in the dead cold of January!)

1/2 cup apricot jam, melted

2 cups sugar

To assemble the pastries:

Line a cookie sheet with parchment or a silicone mat.

Dust the surface of the cantaloupe-size piece of refrigerated Brioche dough with flour and quickly shape it into a rough ball shape.

Roll the dough to about 1/8″ thick rectangle, no thinner or it won’t rise enough. Adding flour on the dough and pin to prevent from sticking.

Cut out 4-inch circles, using a round cookie or biscuit cutter. You can make 1 or a dozen pastries and just put the left over dough back in the bucket.

Make a flat mound of sugar on the work surface.

Using the rolling pin, roll back and forth over the center, stopping 1/2 inch from either end to create an oval. If the dough sticks to the pin sprinkle with a bit of flour. Lay the oval, sugar side up on the prepared cookie sheet. Repeat with the rest of the dough circles.

Place 2 tablespoons of the pastry cream in the center of the sugared oval. Place 1 or 2 apricots on the pastry cream so they resemble a sunny-side-up egg.

Rest the pastry for 30 to 40 minutes (this is slightly less time than we say in the book, but I’ve found this to be more than adequate. Always looking for the faster way to have pastries!)

Twenty minutes before baking time, preheat oven to 350 degrees (this is different than what we say in the book, which is a mistake and should be changed.)

Bake the pastries in the center of the oven for about 25-30 minutes, or until the dough is golden brown and sugar is caramelized. If you are baking two trays at once make sure to rotate the trays top to bottom so that they bake evenly and the bottoms don’t over bake.

As soon as the pastries come out of the oven, brush the apricot jam over the apricots to give them a nice shine.

46 thoughts on “Sunny-Side-Up Apricot Pastry”

I live in Minneapolis, I bought your book and have made the Mother recipe and love it. I am wanting to make the rye bread and dont know what carmal color is, you call for in the recipe. No one has been able to help me with it. Can you also tell me where you buy bulk Rye flour,and where to buy carmal color.

Dear Mr. Hertzberg, I recently tried your 5-minute technique with authentic sourdough. It is fabulous. If you would like to hear the details please contact me since I don’t know how to contact you except through here.

I finally received the book today- and I cannot tell you how excited I am to making my first loaf of bread!
Question: after my dough is mixed, at what point do I put the dough in the fridge? Its on the counter rising right now, and then do I let it rest on the pizza peel before baking?

Sorry for these questions but this is why I have waited all these decades to begin baking!

Mary: Caramel color is simply overcooked sugar which carmelizes very deeply, and is then dehydrated. Baking specialty stores have it (like Cooks of Crocus Hill), but I usually get mine mail-order from King Arthur Flour (www.kingarthurflour.com/). Bulk rye flour is usually only available from natural food coops, that’s where I get mine. Jeff

I’m so glad you have liked the master recipe and are moving on to try some of the others. I think you are referring to the pumpernickel bread (p.67), which calls for caramel color. It is one of the ingredients that give this bread its nice dark color and some of its classic mild bitter flavor. You can leave it out of the recipe, but your bread will be much lighter in color and not have the full pumpernickel flavor. If you want to buy some we found it at King Arthur Flour:http://www.kingarthurflour.com/shop/landing.jsp?term=caramel+color&go=DefaultSearch

For bulk Rye flour I would try your local co-op. Hodgson Mill or Bob’s Red Mill rye flours are also available in grocery stores.

I’ve been watching you works come to fruition through your site and others’. Bread is really fundamental in Latin in general, Cuban specifically, food. We eat bread with everything. Even here in Atlanta, the grocery stores sell Cuban bread (something similar to French baguette). Might you suggest a cool twist on making Cuban bread, maybe with mango in it–something like this sunny side up pastry? Let’s chat!

Bren: Are you willing to share your ideas here in public? The first bread I ever made was James Beard’s “Cuban” Bread from Beard on Bread. He actually called it French Bread but then went on to say it’s closer to Cuban. But you’re thinking something sweet here.

Our brioche dough would certainly work beautifully with mango. What do you have in mind? Jeff

You have my brain spinning with ideas. The first thing that came to me is making a sweet, but tart passion fruit custard and topping that with the sliced mango. We can even brush a little vanilla syrup over the whole thing. I’m going to work on that and let me know if you have other ideas as well!

As your errata list gets longer, it would be nice if you dated them or added each new one at the top so it was easier, for those of us who check back regularly, to find the changes.

A “Contact Us” email address would be nice, if you stated it had to restricted to a comment such as made above or there was a simple question, not of general interest.

As it is now, the only way to make a statement is to reply to a posting that may have NOTHING to do with the topic Jeff or Zoe started.

The book has renewed my amateurish interest in bread-making. It takes several tries to get it right but it gets better each time. [No mention is made in the book as to the optimal amibient tempature range for rising. 🙁 ]

Bernard: glad to have re-awakened an old hobby; thanks for trying the bread.

I think our errata sheet is running its course, so probably not much more to do (hope I’m not wrong). Unfortunately, there are technical barriers to getting a better “comments” section using the simple web tool we’ve adopted.

Optimal ambient temp: some authors suggest that about 70 degrees is optimal, but we’ve found that cooler is just fine (it takes longer but that’s not usually a big deal). In the summer the rooms in my house are warmer than 70 and we haven’t had any complaints. Given the long “retard” in the fridge, this recipe is very forgiving about the temp for the initial rise.

Great point about the errata sheet, we will start doing that as of now!

We are also working on a way to have a general comment page that would not tie you into one discussion, but would allow for general questions. As we are not the brains behind the IT of this site it may take a few days to implement.

Thank you for the suggestions!

I’m glad that you’re baking once again.

As for the ambient temperature for rising, we hesitated to suggest this so as not to intimidate anyone whose house may not match that temperature. But since you brought it up it is helpful to note that if your house is kept cool (62 degrees or lower) it will probably take longer for the bread to rise than if your house is warmer than that. My kitchen is generally pretty warm at 65-67 degrees and those are the temperatures I tested my resting times for. This answer may not be as precise as you may like but the dough has proven to be quite forgiving.

Best regards from Finland! Just received your fabulous book and I am anxious to try the bread. Nice that you have this site in case of “emergency questions” 🙂 The instructions in the book are very specific, thanks already in advance!

Thanks for your note, we look forward to hearing about your bread experience. We are also curious about the kind of flour you are using. Do you know how it compares to the unbleached all-purpose flour you can find in the states?

Whoa, Finland! Thanks for stopping by TiV, we’ll try to answer any questions you have. We’re especially curious how you make out with European flours. Our recipes were tested with American all-purpose containing protein in the range of 10 to 11.5 percent, and that range works. Some European flours (we’re told), are “softer” than that (they have less protein). Our dough, made with flours having less than 10% protein may come out too “loose,” and require using more flour.

But if you have flours in the range I specified, it should come out perfectly. I had great luck with flours in England this past summer, ranging from inexpensive supermarket products to artisan organic stuff from a very posh store.

Hi,
Just wanted to let you know Zoe, that you were right about my vertical oven sprint problems. I think my house may be cool here in the New England winter and I need to give the dough a little extra time to rise and make sure it’s not too cold when it goes in the oven. Other than that my children thank you for this book, they have been loving the bread the “crusty bread” even managed to take out my 5 year old’s first tooth, she was thrilled.
teresa

I had to laugh about the tooth coming out because of the bread. Only a mother of a 6 year old, who is desperately trying to get his tooth to fall out, could take that as a compliment!!!! I’ll give him a crusty boule for breakfast and see if that tooth will finally come free.

I have been making many of the breads over the past few weeks.
Most have been great successes with a few coming out not as good. It would help if I read the
directions more often!
this past week I made the sunflower breakfast bread which
was a hit. One of the women at work said it was the best bread she ever had. Another stated it
reminded her of spring and
sunshine. My husband also liked the sunflower. My daughter and I weren’t that thrilled. I tend to like the rye best with lots of caraway.
what I like about the book is the variety of recipes. Something for everyone!

I so appreciate that you are baking your way through the book and finding the recipes that you like. We tried to create a large variety of breads so that everyone would find something that they loved! I’m glad you found the rye and hope there are many others to follow!

The cover of your book jumped out at me as I was at the library last week. It was in the new book section. I checked it out and have been devouring it. I have made the master recipe and my family has been devouring it. Fabulous! Of course, the book is due back next week and I will have to buy one for myself. My question is this, we try to eat fairly healthy. So much of what I read advises against white flour and refined sugar. In your opinion, what breads in your book do you consider to be the healthiest? I suppose at times we just have to remember “everything in moderation”. Thank you so much for sharing this family-friendly method. I am looking forward to cooking my way through the book and my family is looking forward to eating their way through the book.

Thanks for checking it out! I’m so pleased that you are making the bread.

The whole grain breads do tend to have more nutrition and therefore would be healthier than straight all-purpose flour.

If you are looking for a way to get the nutrition without the heavier texture or taste you may want to try using King Arthur’s White Whole Wheat flour as a substitute for some or all of the all-purpose. One note of caution when doing this is that the whole wheat flour absorbs much more water and you will need to add more water to your dough.

Hi Jeff and Zoe,
Not sure where to post this: I went through the book and organized the recipe variations by dough type, and am posting them here. Feel free to edit, post elsewhere, or do whatever with it that maximizes it’s usefulness for your fans.

You’re most welcome. I feel proud to contribute to the online community you and Jeff have created, a community of new and rejuvenated bakers mingling under the gluten cloak of crosslinked cyberproteins :-). Oy, what hath thou two wrought!? A lawyer waxing poetic and spouting yeasty poems, and now a sign language interpreter committing acts of gluteny [sic]. You’re going to have to keep an eye on these newly emboldened bakers getting eye-rollingly creative. But seriously, I’m glad the other reader with the MS Word doc on bread varieties has created something similar, but with the addition of page numbers. That will make it doubly useful. And on a last note, I can’t believe your publisher fought you on including an index. HELLOOO! And a note for the next edition– indexed recipes should be listed under their basic name, not the name you gave the dish. E.g. “pizza, napolitan”, as opposed to John Barrymore Pletzl.
Roll On!
-Celene

I received your book two days ago and yesterday had four different recipes started. Last night, I baked Challah,Deli-Style Rye and soft white bread. I also used the boule recipe for pizza crust. In all the years I have been working with different recipes and/or methods for pizza dough, this one by far is the best!! Thanks Jeff and Zoe!! I don’t think I’ll ever order take out pizza again.

Our son-in-law is from Milan and of course, loves Panetonne I want to use the paper molds. The ones I have are 4″ tall. How much dough should be put in the molds and how high should they rise before baking? Thanks so much. I am having so much fun with your recipes. This blog has also been so helpful.

I usually fill the molds about 3/4 of the way full so that when they rise they come up and over the top of the mold. Depending on the size of your mold you will want to let it rest for about 1 1/2 – 2 hours. It may not rise up as much as traditional dough before going in the oven, but it should have really nice oven spring.

I often brush the top of the dough with egg wash and sprinkle it with sugar right before going in the oven. This gives the bread a lovely caramelized topping!

Thank you so much, Zoe, for your thought on the Panetonne. I made the dough yesterday. I made half the recipe and used a cup of mixed diced dried fruits. I let the dough rise for about 3 hours and then put it in the fridge. I made the Panetonne this morning and, because our house was cold, it had to rise for about 2 hours. I used 4″ round paper molds and brushed the risen breads with the egg wash and sugar as you said. OH MY GOD!!!! THEY ARE BEAUTIFUL!!! Can’t wait to make them for Easter presents. We waited for about a half an hour to try them, and they are delicious. I think they will taste even better tomorrow when the flavors mellow. Thanks to you both for this wonderful book. **Half the recipe made 2 loaves.

My son-in-law, who is from the birthplace of Panetonne, thinks I am amazing. Milan is very different from the South, where everyone bakes. They buy their bread and specialty breads from the neighborhood bakery. So…..he is very impressed. I also have to tell you that my family and friends think I have become a salesperson for this book. I am “pimping” a bread book!!! My neighbor came over this afternoon with her book, which had just arrived from Amazon, and her plastic container and I walked her through the process. It’s hysterical.

I just bought your bread after giving the master boule recipe a try, and falling in love with no knead bread in general. I just made the pastries this weekend and LOVED them. I posted about it on my blog. I ended up using peaches instead as I could not find canned apricots and fresh are nowhere in site yet. The brioche dough is so soft and easy to work with, and it made such a lovely tender product. Thank you for coming up with such a great book – I look forward to trying so many more recipes from this book. My previously injured sore right shoulder, and stomach thank you. Even if my hips do not!

Lady Di: You can get it from any Middle Eastern shop. Try the Global Market, the Holy Land grocery has it. If you don’t use it, you can just increase the orange zest. The flower water adds a unique floral taste and scent to the bread, but isn’t absolutely neccesary. Jeff

I am really hoping that the fact that the USPS site says my book is out for delivery (after it sat in Jersey City for 5 days) means I will be getting it tomorrow – then to read and plan – I’m hoping my next week I will be able to play with this – broken right arm makes things difficult. Can you make just half a batch – only for easy of carrying in my left hand and getting it into and out of the fridge (lighter – maybe smaller container easier to use with one hand)

I’m afraid that the key to success with g-f bread baking is in the combination of the flours. The g-f starches and flours all have very different properties and flavors and seem to only work in partnership. I have not had great success with using just one flour. If you try it and love the bread please let me know what you have discovered.

White rice and brown rice flours taste different and behave differently in the dough. Brown rice has the bran and white does not.

I fear this was not the answer you were looking for. I hope you will give it a shot and report back what you find! Thanks, Zoë

Thanks Kathy– this was a loss back when there were widespread attacks on WordPress blogs some months back. We have to dig out the old pictures and repair this, but at the moment we have book deadline in 3 weeks (http://artisanbreadinfive.com/?p=1365 )